E/CN.4/2006/74 page 9 (b) Protecting and promoting cultural and social identity, including the right of individuals to choose which ethnic, linguistic or religious groups they wish to be identified with, and the right of those groups to affirm and protect their collective identity and to reject forced assimilation; (c) Ensuring effective non-discrimination and equality, including ending structural or systemic discrimination; and (d) Ensuring effective participation of members of minorities in public life, especially with regard to decisions that affect them. Parameters 23. The independent expert will be guided by a number of parameters when determining the issues and situations that fall within her mandate. The independent expert supports the view that determination of which groups constitute minorities does not lie with the State, but is dependent on a range of both objective and subjective criteria, in accordance with the principles of international law. The Human Rights Committee, in its general comment No. 23, makes clear that “the existence of an ethnic, religious or linguistic minority in a given State party does not depend on a decision by that State party but [needs] to be established by objective criteria”. At the same time, minority status is closely tied to how a group defines itself. The principle that belonging to a minority is a matter of a person’s choice includes the right to not be treated as a minority and the notion that no disadvantage may arise from the exercise of such a choice. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) notes in its general recommendation VIII that “the ways in which individuals are identified as being members of a particular racial or ethnic group or groups … shall, if no justification exists to the contrary, be based upon self-identification by the individual concerned”. As such, groups falling within the scope of the mandate of the independent expert will include those that self-identify as minority communities. 24. The independent expert notes that she will not be guided by an exacting assessment of the relative numerical size of a population group compared to that of the larger society. Each situation will be different, and she will consider the specifics of the situation on a case-by-case basis. The independent expert will focus her work only on non-dominant minority groups. At the same time, she recognizes that some minority groups may be dominant in certain spheres, such as the economic sphere, while suffering discrimination in others. She will take such situations fully into account. 25. The duration of residence or domicile within a State does not limit protections under international standards relating to minorities, including the Declaration on the Rights of Minorities. As the Human Rights Committee made clear in general comment No. 23, newly resident minority groups and non-citizens are entitled to the minority rights protections laid out in article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, provided they belong to a group that can be distinguished on ethnic, religious or linguistic grounds. 26. Claims made by minorities may involve calls for equality and non-discrimination, respect for their identity, language, religion and cultural practices, and protection and promotion of their identity in law and in practice. They may involve territorial issues or assertions that they have